now police believe they have him inside a cabin in big bear. there is a standoff underway. fox news will continue coverage breaking news out of los angeles. ♪ ♪ this is a fox news alert. i'm bret baier. california law enforcement officials apparently have former lapd cop christopher dorner pinned down in a cabin in big bear, as we have continuing coverage here on fox news channel. there is a firefight with some officers wounded. let's go live to lapd headquarters and william la jeunesse. good afternoon, william. bring us up to date. >> after a lengthy shoot-out in the san bernardino mountains a standoff with the police surrounding a cabin. where dorner is holed up in right now. there is a news conference

scheduled for 3:00 local time. they have been prompt in the past. it doesn't appear they are on time now. chief charlie beck is at the command center in the mountains. let me bring you up to speed right now. what we believe is that dorner broke in a cabin thursday and tied up the couple inside. stole their vehicle. then several hours ago he took it down the mountain. stopped by fish and game officers who at that point in time engaged him. he bailed out of the vehicle and headed to the woods. charp exchange of gunfire between the fish and game as well as deputy san bernadino county deputies and now he is holed up in a cabin halfway between big bear lake and woodlands, california. we also understand at this point in time that he did not have time to arm himself heavily. he had ammo with him at the time when he bailed out of the

vehicle. according to the "l.a. times" there may be hostages involved. two deputies, we are not sure if they were officers, fish and game or county were airlifted to a hospital with injuries. that is the latest we have now. conditions are fluid up there. waiting to hear update from lapd. >> bret: this is the fugitive ex-los angeles cop sought for three killings. you said that the authorities believe he tied up a couple. stole their truck and up with perp was able to get away and make a call. that is where they converged on this particular area up in big bear? [ no audible response ] >> bret: i think we lost william up there at the lapd headquarters but we have trace

gallagher. there are reports that might be according to the authorities holding hostages. >> but again, bret, that hasn't been confirmed. that was something that the "l.a. times" put on the blog. and some organizations ran with that. the thing they are saying now is the police are warning everybody do not buy in to any other reports unless we confirm them. they are shutting off the scanner traffic. what they are doing is media, as we want to do are cherry picking some of the information off the scanners because the scanners have been a vital source. we don't have the helicopters. despite the left-hand side of the screen. this is not the scene. we don't have the helicopters because the faa forbidden them flying over this. right now we are at the mercy of what law enforcement gives us. the scanner traffic. right now --

>> bret: trace, let me interrupt you. let's get some facts on the ground. lapd headquarters. >> this information is from the san bernadino county sheriff's office. let me put a caveat that this is very early and preliminary information. today at 12:22 p.m., san bernadino sheriffs were in the hunt for christopher dorner in the big bear area. they received a call of a stolen vehicle in the 1200 block of club view drive. when they responded there, they received information from the person reporting that this stolen vehicle was stolen by an individual that appeared to be similar to christopher dorner. immediately conducted a ground a an air search for the vehicle. they were able to locate it at highway 38 and glass road. where the suspect in the vehicle fled in the forest. shortly thereafter, this individual barricaded himself in a cabin and exchange of gunfire occurred. during the exchange of gunfire, two officers were injured. they have been airlifted to a

local hospital. right now their condition is unknown. the los angeles police department has sent resources out to the san bernadino county airport. our resources are waiting there for authorization from the san bernadino county sheriff to assist them. so this is a san bernadino county sheriff investigation. this is their lead. they have the incident commander out there. we are there to support them only if asked. that is as much as i have on that particular incident out there. quick update on how the search is going from our side. we have 1,045 clues that the officers are working on. they are following up on all the clues. obviously, some of them are panning out. some of them are dead ends. but we are continuing to do the search and continuing to work our clues while the events up in the san bernadino mountains unfold. i'll take a couple of quick questions but again my information is very, very sketchy. >> how sure are they that this is dorner? >> we're not positive. until we get him in custody and he is handcuffed and in

jail we won't know for sure. they said he was similar in appearance. he was up in that area at one time. so, you know, the likelihood is at a 10 but we can't say for sure. >> he is in a cabin and held hostage for several days? >> i can't confirm the hostage part. i have heard it through the media sources. we were listening to the scanner and getting much of the information from the san bernadino county sheriff. i can't confirm anybody is held hostage at this time. [ inaudible ] >> i can't give you specifics about what resources we have up there. we believe the individual may be watching tv or may have access to media so i don't want to tip our hand what we're sending out there. we have asked the media with air ships in the area, not have the airship show overhead officers of what they're doing in area. reason obviously it will put the officers at an extreme

tactical disadvantage if the suspect knows what the folks are doing. >> gunfire on the game warden? >> i don't know what the involvement of the california fish and game was at this time. my understanding at san bernadino county sheriff, that is from the press office but i don't have an update from the california fish and game. i don't know their involvement at this point in time. >> [ inaudible ] >> everything is hopeful this ends without further bloodshed. we hope to take the guy in custody and we hope he doesn't hurt anybody else and none of the officers are seriously injured which we don't know. the best thing is to surrender and allow to us take him in custody and face the criminal justice system. there is a tremendous sense of apprehension among the officers here. concern about the officers up there. until this guy is in handcuffs and until he is in custody, none of the people in our department will rest. >> manpower, you guys are

waiting. what kind of resources -- >> i can't give specifics of what resources we sent. we did send some resources and they are waiting at the airport in san bernadino now and waiting to be called in by the incident commander if needed. right now we have not been needed. people are asking if the chief of police has gone out there. chief beck has not responded out there. he is still here. [ inaudible ] i don't have information about the vehicle that the suspect allegedly took. i have seen some videotape from the media members on the vehicle. i don't have the information about what the vehicle was. >> if he watching, what lessons do you have for him right now? >> message for him is enough is enough. time to turn yourself in. it's time to stop the bloodshed. it's time to let this incident be over. >> commander, you first priority is to take him alive and put him under arrest? >> the first priority is the safety of the community around there. the san bernadino sheriff are evacuating people and making sure that the citizens are safe in the area are locked down. once that area is locked down

and all the citizens in the area are safe, then we let the sarn bernadino swat team go in and do what they do best, get him in custody without further bloodshed. one more question and i have to go. [ inaudible ] >> a couple of things. the county sheriff are in jrich. they are embedded with the scene of officers that are all working together to solve this thing and they have been there since the beginning. we sent an assistant chief out there to sarn bernadino. he is in their command post. we are getting real-time from our command and we know what is going on up there. probably, a very good exchange of information. we work well with the law enforcement partners throughout southern california. i -- [ inaudible ] that is all we have time for right now. i'll be back out again. if anything bigs break on this, we'll be back out again.

and we will give you a further update. the update will be right here. this is the place to be. i have a spanish speaker here to answer spanish media questions for you and turn it over to captain romero. >> bret: the lapd with an update there on the hostag incit in san bernadino in big bear. trace gallagher is still with us. you have different law enforcement agencies working together obviously. and this press conference happening in l.a. what perked your ears from the news conference from following the story for the last few days? >> well, got to pick up here, this was the biggest manhunt in california history. so you have every law enforcement officer available. many of them had been on call or on duty for six or seven days so it's an all hands on deck situation. it was interesting there, because we are talking about the situation absolutely in the cabin. again, granted, lapd is getting this second hand because the primary unit on

there is san bernadino sheriff's office, but they work in conjunction with each other. so what they are finding out is that it is unclear, it's unclear at this point in time right now exactly if the reports of somebody possibly other than christopher dorner being inside that cabin there. may have been confusion about that he, pulled off a home invasion at some point in the past 24 hours. tied up a couple. then when he left he untied them and took their car. came in contact with fish and game. that is when the shoot-out happened. the confusing part is did he go back in and seek renew jersey the same cabin that the couple was inside? at this point in time, that is very, very unclear. what is clear is that we know that a number of police officers and sheriff deputies have surrounded this cabin. and they do believe that christopher dorner is holed up inside. he has indeed fired shots up and injured at least two officers or deputies and one

of them was airlifted out to a local hospital. that is where we stand now. we believe he has weapons and smoke grenade that he threw to get the officers off his trail. they surrounded the cabin and they are waiting for his next move. the police officers told us in the last hour, they have time on their side. as the clock ticks, the sun sets around 5:30, sun in the mountains goes down around 5 5:40. darkness is coming. christopher dorner time and time again said he would not walk out of this alive in the manifest toe he wrote, saying that he wants his name cleare cleared. unfortunately he will not be to see it cleared. the air traffic has been closed off. the roads in and out of big

bear are now closed. the biggest man hunt in california history is focused on a cabin in san bernadino mountains. >> we don't know which agency the two wounded officers were with. there was some reporting that it was state, fish and wildlife. that they were, that the shoot-out happened. we don't know that for sure, right? >> we don't. we know he came in contact with fish and game. we don't if that is where the officers were wounded. apparently he got inside the cabin he continued to fire. we heard sheriff officers were down. the standard call if you are a deputy or officer, the standard call is "officer down. " we heard "officer down" twice and we know one of them was airlifted out. unclear the severity of the

wounds we should point out. then we went back inside the cabin. he started to fire shots out and shots were fired back in. at last check, the last order from the person in charge out there was do not fire unless they are fired upon. right now they are very much in wait mode. >> bret: trace, stand by if you would on the breaking story now. let's check in on the phone with big bear lake mayor jay olbernolte who join us by phone. thank you for joining us. can you hear me? >> can you hear me? >> bret: yes, sir. can you tell us your sense of the situation as you see it there on the ground? i know that we are getting the situation that the roadblocks are set up all over your area. around that particular cabin. >> yes. the cabin that you are talking about is in seven oaks, eight miles south of big bear lake.

we are thankful that this activity moved out of the city of big bear lake and away from the residents and tourists. >> bret: what is your thought about this? , mayor? i know this is a surprise. small community anyplace. but your thoughts as this man hunt has continueed? >> we are very relieved, now that the suspect has been flushed out. we have perfect faith in the ability of law enforcement to bring this to a successful conclusion. i don't think there is any doubt at this point that is what they are going to do. >> bret: where exactly is this cabin? is there just one road in and out of there? when they say it's closed off, is it really just one way in and out? >> well, there are three different highways in and out of the big bear area. this particular community is located on one of those highways, which is highway 38. so my understanding is that all of the highways are still closed to caution and i wouldn't be surprise if the other two open soon.

>> bret: what the reaction of people you talk to around town and has the area cleared out? >> by "cleared out" do you mean has there been an impact on tourism? >> bret: have you evacuated the surrounding area around the seven oaks area? have they closed out around that area? i know they are blocking off those roads. >> well, first, you have to understand that seven oaks is unincorporated community. it's not actually in the city of big bear lake. it's several miles away. we have been really impressed with the professionalism of the law enforcement people we have dealt with in this entire week. i would be very surprised if they haven't gone door-to-door to make sure that anyone in the local area has been evacuated. it's a very rural community. not very many houses out there. >> bret: mayor, you thoughts if this comes to an end quickly, do you think? >> oh, i don't know how quickly it is going to come to an end. but there no doubt in my mind it will come to an end. at this point we think less

about that and more about thinking about the law enforcement people injured in the defense of our community. we owe them debt and gratitude. i don't have any information on their condition but we are hoping they are okay. >> bret: as are we. mayor obernolt from big bear lake, we appreciate your time tonight. thank you. one last check in with trace gallagher in l.a. trace, we will check in obviously as the breaking news continues to come out. you are saying everything is shut down. we don't have the live pictures from the helicopters, the radio traffic is shut off. information pretty much shut off as authorities are probably getting ready to do whatever they are going to do. >> that is exactly right. they shut down the scanner traffic. now we are getting word that some of the scanner traffic is back on. what they have done, done it before, they shut down a

couple of channels, try to throw us off and go to a couple of other channels. not playing hide and seek with us in any capacity, they just want to make sure they are controlling the information that is coming out of there. they close off the air traffic, which means that the faa put a no-fly order on the mountain over big bear so you could fly surrounding the valley, but you could not fly over the scene. that order will stay in effect for the remainder of this standoff. and right now, what you have is you have the scanner traffic that we last heard of calling for more swat teams, saying we have plenty of police officers on scene. what we need are swat teams. and we know that lapd had 20 swat teams at the airport in san bernadino ready to jump in at a moment's notice. unclear if that has happened so far. we do know he is holed up inside the cabin and we know they surrounded the cabin with not one but two different perimeters because we know this guy has been very elusive over the past six days. recall, when they found his

truck last wednesday, that -- or last thursday, mind you, that the truck was burned up. there were some tracks leading away from the truck in the snow. but a few hours later it started snowing. what now looks to be like a scene where the past six days you have had a man who has been in the big bear mountains, possibly holed up in a cabin, where people were in there, and he held them hostage, and then walked out. at some point today. stole a truck. came in contract some federal agents. and then came in contact with sheriff deputies and police officers. and the shoot-out had been going for about 25 minutes. the guns by our clock had been silent now for the better part of an hour. is it unclear what is going on inside the cabin but right now wait and see for police surrounding it. >> bret: a big news story. trace, stand by if you would. we will follow every minute. if anything breaks we will head back that second. again, a fugitive, exlos angeles cop sought in three

killings. believed to be cornered in the big bear area. in the 7 oaks off of highway 38. in that area. we are monitoring, but as trace mentioned, authorities are closing off the air space, and semily alerting media that they are closing down and ready to perhaps move in on this suspect. christopher dorner. we are monitoring every moment. and have our reporters positioned for that. we will put up a box of the live picture from big bear as well, as we continue the show. because it's also a big news day here in washington. it's "state of the union" tonight. despite unprecedented deficits and debt, president obama will call for more spending and investment, we're told, in tonight's "state of the union" address. meanwhile, speaker of the house boehner says the president "doesn't have the guts to go against his liberal

base. " we have extensive coverage throughout "special report" tonight. first up, chief white house correspondent ed henry with just released excerpts. good evening, ed. >> good evening, bret. you are right. dramatic news night. this is a big moment for the president. this may be his last "state of the union" before he is a lame duck. the last chance for him in a "state of the union" to really grab the nation by the lapel and deliver the message. aides say he plans to use the opportunity tonight being forceful and arguing for a stronger, middle class. while somehow not adding to the deficit with new proposals. as you noted. an excerpt. just given to us by the white house and what he will say. "tonight, i will lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework, both parties agreed to just 18 months ago." the president going on to say let me repeat. nothing i'm proposing tonight should increase the deficit by a single dime. republicans tonight, though, are expressing skepticism that the math will add up.

>> as president obama put the finishing touches on the "state of the union" -- >> mr. president, how's the speech? >> find out tonight. >> -- the man who will greet him, boehner questioned whether the president has the courage to tackle deficit reduction. boehner telling reporters, "i don't think he has the guts to do it. he doesn't have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party. never has." the president's top economic advisors today incysted mr. obama is ready to tack the deficit to a point. >> you need to reduce spending. you need to reduce entitlement spending. it doesn't mean you pull back on everything. there are things that are investing in the science technology and mathematical education of our children and workers. that is important. >> republicans hear the word "investing" and believe that is just a polite way of saying more government spending. especially since four years ago, from the very same spot, the president made this vow. >> yesterday, i held a fiscal

summit where i pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office. >> since his re-election, the president has been signaling a more hard-edged taupe in taking on republicans. over a series of other big issues that his advisors expect to be part of a dramatic call for action tonight. >> we have to be mindful about steps we can take to end the cycle of gun violence in this country. so we need to get immigration reform done. >> the side issues could pull the president off-course, which is why they are stressing mr. obama will be zeroing back in on jobs. >> you are going to hear the focus on what we can do, working together and bipartisan way, to strengthen the middle class. >> though republicans say they have heard that before. >> i lost count of how many times the president made one of those pivots. i mean he pivoted so many times reporter covering the white house must be getting completely dizzy. >> another important issue tonight on afghanistan. we are told by the president's top aide he will announce

34,000 troops will be brought home from afghanistan by this time next year. that cuts the force in half. republicans will have questions about whether that is a draw down that is too quick. although, the white house says it's time to turn the page on a decade of war. bret? >> ed henry live on the north lawn. thank you. let's get more in the particulars tonight. joining me now from the briefing room at the white house, press secretary jay carney. thank you for sticking around on the breaking news. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me. >> bret: what is the president looking to do tonight? are the stories about the tone and tenor of tonight being aggressive accurate? >> well, i would say the answer to that question, the second one is no. the president i think thematically and tonally will continue what he has said repeatedly on the national stage. going all the way back to his speech to the democratic convention in boston in 2004 where he talked about the need for us to come together. and reach common ground and find solutions to the

challenges that face us. that where we set aside party. you heard him in the the inaugural address, bret, talk about how nobody expects us to resolve all of our differences for democrats and republicans to agree on everything, but that shouldn't an excuse for getting nothing done. we should come together on the central challenges that face us. that thematically is something you hear the president echo again today. he will make sure what his agenda is and what his vision is. but he will makebe clear also there are ways to achieve the things. if we come together and work together in a bipartisan fashion. >> bret: you know, you mentioned the inaugural address. people on the left and the right characterized that address as being proa liberal point of view -- liberal point of view. rightly or wrongly. speaker boehner thought it was. he had a breakfast this morning. i attended it. he said i would expect tonight to be more partisan. he was talking more partisan than the inaugural address.

in ed espiece, he said about whether the president will address deficit and debt he said, "i don'tthe he has the guts to do it. he doesn't have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party. never has." your response to that? >> well, i'll take the second part first. this is a president two in negotiations with that very same speaker of the house put on the table, you know, reforms to medicare. reforms to our entitlements. they were tough pills to swallow for the democratic party. he did it because he is leading his party toward a compromise that would reduce our deficit by the $4 trillion that so many people identified in a ten-year period as necessary to get our deficit and debt to gdp ratios in line. what we haven't seen unfortunately from the republican side is anything like those kind of guts when it comes to asking republicans to make tough decisions on the issues that are channeling for them.

including revenues. what we hear again and again and again no, revenues, no revenues. we would rather have sequest gore in effect and the terrible consequences that would entail for that, than ask the corporate jet own torres give up the tax loopholes or the hedge fund managers to give up the carried interest provision that allows them to pay taxes on their income at a far lower rate than most americans do. so, you know, the president has been very gutsy when it comes to the proposals he has put on the table and that remain on the table for deficit reduction. he looks forward to working with congress to get the rest of the job done. as president, he signed in to law, $2.5 trillion already in deficit reduction. 70% of that has come in spending cuts. 3% 0% in revenue. that is balance and we need to continue it. >> bret: there are lot of folks who question the $2.5 trillion and how it adds up. speaker boehner said i don't

like the sequester, i don't want the sequester, but the spending issue is the biggest issue to threaten our future. when will we get serious about the long-term spending problem and when will the president propose something instead of is sequester? how about the senate democrats. we know the democrats will propose something. boehner said increasing revenue, "the president's gotten his re-knew, period." -- revenue, period." is that it? >> we heard the ultimatums before, bret. we heard no way, no how, with rates rise to the clinton era levels on the highest earners in this country. that has happened because it's the right policy and the right thing to do. we need to do this in a balanced way. late last year, the speaker claimed he had a plan to raise up to $800 billion in revenue. through tax reform. from the wealthiest americans. presumably that is because the tax code is filled with the loopholes and special deductions that we can eliminate or close.

or limit. if that was the right policy two months ago, how is it not the right policy now. how can you say we'll cut education funding and cut medicare further than we have to. simply to protect the special breaks that the wealthy get or corporations get that normal folks don't get or small businesses don't get? it doesn't make sense. not good policy. you know, we are going to work with the republicans to try to achieve additional balanced deficit reduction. not just because the president thinks it's the right thing to go. but what the american people think is the right way to go as we learned last year in the election. >> bret: all right, jay. last thing. the president said this during the election. during the debate october 22. >> comments on this. first, the sequester is not something that i propose. it's something that congress proposed. it will not happen. >> bret: so on that statement, both things probably can be said are not

true. right? >> well, look, i love that the republicans are trying to make this the obama sequester. let me remind you on the day the sequester passed the house of representatives, 269 congressmen and women voted for it. how many were republicans? 171. among those republicans, the speaker of the house. the republican majority leader. the republican whip and the chairman of the budget committee who later became the vice presidential nominee. all of them voted for it. the speaker of the house that day said i got 98% of what i want. i'm pretty pleased. so somehow, what they like then they don't like now. >> bret: fair. >> they are trying to say it's the president's idea. >> fair, but it was the president's idea. >> look -- >> you can concede that point, right? >> whatly concede we were looking and the republicans were looking for a trigger around which to build the mechanism to get us out of default possibility. >> bret: right. >> sequester was one of the ideas put forward by the president's team. >> bret: jack lew quoted in

bob woodward's book saying we have an idea for a trigger and harry reid quoted saying -- >> and you can hang all you want on this. >> bret: no, i'm just quoting the book. >> was to include revenue in that. shockingly balance was imposed by the republicans at the time. that is why we have the situation we have now. both sides agreed when the republicans voted overwhelmingly for it, as i will remind you that the sequester was designed to be terrible policy that shouldn't come to pass. what we hear from the republicans now unfortunately again, it will would be better to have tens of thousands of people laid off for fu furlough. thousands of kids thrown off of head start if the sequester kicks in than to ask corporate jet owners to give up their tax brack. or to ask oil and gas companies who have been making record profits and who are, you know, again and again, year after year to give us the taxpayers subsidiaries. that is not good economic policy. it doesn't make sense.

american people don't support it. >> bret: jay, as always, thank you for coming on. i appreciate the patience in the breaking news tonight. >> i'm a former news guy. i know news when i see it. i totally understand. thank you, bret. >> bret: thanks, jay. we will continue to follow that breaking news from california. the man hunt continues. we'll also have the republican response. as you look there, in big bear. 7 oaks area. the standoff with a fugitive exlos angeles cop sought in three killings, barricaded, according to authorities, in a cabin in the san berndy know mountains after a shoot-out with authorities. they blocked off all the roads there. we're following every minute. keep it here on fox.

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down the roads. they are closing off the entire area. believed to be where he is holed up. we are getting conflicting information whether he has hostages there. the news conference earlier, police still didn't confirm, in l.a., whether that was in fact true or not. but he is believed to be holed up in one of theca byes there after stealing a vehicle. and engaging in a shoot-out with authorities in that area. we just learned according to kttv, our fox affiliate in l.a., they are reporting that one of the deputies wounded in the initial gunfight in big bear has died. we are following every minute here with updates. and when authorities give us anything new, or any new information, we will continue to bring it here on fox news channel. we'll continue to have the live pictures throughout the show. as we brought you from the

white house, the white house press secretary, ahead of the "state of the union" tonight. now the republican perspective. we begin with a look at the man who give the g.o.p. response tonight. chief national correspondent jim angle on florida senator marco rubio. >> what keeps me up at night is a terrorist coming across the border. >> senator marco rubio is giving the republican response to the president because he is a leader on many issues and one of the biggest stars of the party. >> the combination of his star power and interests to hispanics is unbeatable on this issue. >> there is carefully crafted immigration plan likely to get bipartisan support. >> i didn't read this in a book. it live this issue on a daily basis. it live in a family of immigrants. married in a family of immigrants, in a neighborhood of immigrants in a community of immigrants. >> rubio is trying to show

welcoming face to legalling immigrants and discouraging illegal immigration. and tonight, for the first time ever, his speech will be given in both english and spanish. he will also talk about a range of issues including spending, taxes and the cost of big government. >> when you budget, you have to make choices. you have to upset people. you have to tell people sorry, we can't afford to pay for what you want. >> "time" magazine put him on the cover with the headline "the republicans' savior" calling him the new voice of the party. rubio authored bipartisan jobs legislation and more coming on education and small business. all of which the republican analysts give him solid standing to challenge the president. >> perhaps our best communicator on the republican side toto just post conservative republican -- juxtapose conservative conservative values with the policy that president will give in the "state of the union" address. >> he is only 41, analysts say he spent more time in politics than president obama had when he got elected. >> in fact, rubio has more

experience than obama because he was speaker of the house in the megastate of florida. >> in short, analysts say rubio is what republican leaders hope their party will become. bret? >> bret: thanks, jim. let's talk more about the republican response and the president's "state of the union" address. joining me now the senate minority leader. mitch mcconnell. of kentucky. senator, thank you for being here. >> glad do be here, bret. >> bret: your thoughts of tonight? obviously we heard from jay carney. what do you think the president will bring tonight and what do you expect? >> regretfully we anticipate a partisan far left channel to a congress he doesn't fully control. i had hoped on several occasions in the past to see the president move to the political center. so that we could sol tv transcendent problem of our era; which is, spending and debt. completely and totally out of control. i don't anticipate he will say much about that.

that is a disappointment. >> bret: now, democrats say they are introducing a plan this week to replace the sequester. here is what senator reid said about that today. >> later this week, we will introduce a plan to temporarily replace sequester with a balanced approach of the american people want and deserve. the bill is being drafted and will include revenue and cuts. democrats believe the right way to reduce the deficit is target waste and abuse by pairing smart spending cuts with the closing tax loopholes and asking wealthiest americans to contribute. >> that was earlier today. earlier also we heard from speaker bane been a on potential tax increases who said this -- the president has gotten his revenue already. gotten it, period. >> he's correct. operation of law, bush tax cut expire midnight on december 31, president got some of the taxes he was looking for and got them on the high income people.

not by anybody who vote but the law expired. the tax issue is over. we made a commitment, bret, back in august of 2011 that we would achieve $2.1 trillion in spending reduction. no taxes. spending reduction. but with the next ten years and now the president is suggesting we walk away from it in year one. it's completely inappropriate. the government has a spending problem. we have don't have this problem because we tax too little. the pole testing tax cut, tax increases that they are recommending, little or no impact on the real problem which is that we are spending astronomical amount of money every year. four straight years of trillion-dollar annual deficits. >> bret: when you get to the point, that the sequester gets in place. and you have an across-the-board cut, including in defense. and i assume furloughs would start to happen and people would be getting laid off. many in republican districts across the country. in districts all over the place.

there will be a lot of pressure. are the republicans politically willing to hold up under that pressure? to make this spending point? >> the sequester was the president's idea himself. i was in negotiations with him and he incysted we insert the sequester to achieve spending reductions without a tax increase if the so-called super committee failed. it did fail. to then turn around to american people and say we didn't mean it, little over a year later, strikes me as completely unacceptable. the way the sequester achieves the spending, no one likes. no one likes. we indicateed we would reduce spending without raising taxes for this amount in this year. we are willing to talk about how to do that. the president has already gotten the tax revenue that he asked for.

balance, he likes to talk about balance. balance would be. to cup the tax revenue he got at the end of the year with the spending cuts. two months later that the law demands. >> bret: looking to the crystal ball and you don't hear that and you expect a more partisan speech tonight, march sounds like it will be trench warfare up on capitol hill. >> well, i wish the president would move to the political center and lead. we have run in to this problem time and time again. they have a hard time turning off the come pain. it continues indefinitely. if the president really wanted to get an outcome here, if he wanted to help work with us to reduce spending as we promised the american people we would, it would not be a great idea to be making the kind of speech we anticipate he will make tonight. hopefully the sequester kicks in at the end of the month, the senate is not going act we have another chance to see if the president is willing then to keep the commitment we made to the american people to

receive -- to achieve the spending reduction in the first year. there are better ways to do it. i hope he talks to us about doing it in a better way. >> bret: immigration, where does it stand in your view in the senate? speaker boehner spoke highly about the possibilities of getting something through. and it has to move -- >> i'm hopeful. we have a group of four republicans and four democrats working together in the senate. senator rubio and senator mccain in that group. we believe there is a reasonable chance they can come together behind a comprehensive immigration reform bill to pass the senate. >> bret: last thing. chuck hagel? >> controversial nomination. we spent time talking about, and i believe the armed services committee reported him out today. we will be dealing with that nomination on the floor according to many majority leader in next couple days. >> bret: think he gets through? >> a lot of opposition, very controversial nomination.

we'll see what happens. >> bret: that wasn't a yes or no. >> we'll see what happens. >> bret: senator, thank you very much for stopping by. >> thank you. >> bret: well, senate minority leader mentioned, that the floor vote will happen. but the senate armed services committee has voted in favor of the nomination of chuck hagel as the next defense secretary. it was a party line vote, 14 democrats said yes. 11 republicans said no. the nomination now does go to the full senate. and we will talk about this in the next couple of days as the vote moves forward. in tonight's "state of the union" speech give us your reaction live in real time. here is how. correspondent shannon bream explains the bing pulse. >> if you have ever sat on your couch wishing you could give immediate feedback in the president's "state of the union" address, tonight is your chance. fox news in partnership with microsoft wants to hear from you, via the bing pulse.

interactive online opinion tracker that allows you to speak out in real-time. it takes a couple of clicks to get started. >> it's super easy. just go to bing.com/politics. you put in whether you are a democrat, republican, independent. male or female. rock and rolling and ready to go. >> when the president talks about jobs, gun control, immigration, healthcare or any other important topic, you will be the first to give the white house feedback. >> on the screen will be the live feed of fox. underneath it you a line graph. there are buttons on the bottom and you vote thumbs up or down. you can vote every five seconds. it's very simple. you just jump right on and push the button. >> there is also the bing beat. portion of the website you can track a number of social media platforms to see what others who are watching had to say. a new 2013 way to watch. truly interactive "state of the union." >> check it out at

bing.com/politics. starting at 8:30 eastern. you can get logged in and ready to sound off. we will be tracking all the peaks and valleys live. and after the president's address is finished, we will give you the inside scoop on how his remarks played along party an gender lines. bret? >> bret: okay, shannon. thank you. we'll track it again throughout the "state of the union" tonight. so definitely make sure you check it out. now, we are looking live again in the san bernadino mountains. this is the big bear area. seven oaks off of highway 38. you can see the traffic there. that is because authorities have blocked off the entire area. this is for a manhunt. they are surrounding the area where they believe that christopher dorner is. the fugitive, exlos angeles cop sought in three killing. now we are hearing four killings because kttv is reporting that one of the deputies involved in the shoot-out today has died. two werevod in the shoot-out. trace gallagher is standing by in our l.a. newsroom. trace, what is the latest in

this man hunt? what are you hearing out there? >> we can tell you the second deputy involved in the shooting we're told is in critical condition. one is dead and one in critical condition has been flown out to a hospital. pictures on the left-hand side of your screen, we are seeing these pictures because the f.a. and the police department requested that the area over the cabin where dorner is holed up be considered a no-fly zone. so the helicopters cannot get over that area. this main road is a few miles away from actual scene. they believe that dorner is holed up in there. interesting because we have been talking about the fact that the reason that the lapd, the police on scene did not want live television coverage is because thigh didn't want the tactics known to dorner if he was inside watching television. the "l.a. times" says they just talked to the people who own this cabin and saying there is no internet. there is no cable.

there is no phone. there is no way for him to access any of the information. but still, the scanners are down. and the air traffic has been locked off or closed down for better part of two hours. we can tell you we are getting more information from the local newspapers about how this shooting went down. tied up and held a cuple in their cabin. he stole their truck and came in contact with fish and game. shoot-out ensued there but fish and game say none of their agents or officers were hit. then he went inside the cabin and that is when the deputies started chasing. there was a shoot-out in front of the cabin. that is when one deputy was hit and dorner then tried to run out the back door and apparently the other deputy had went around the back. that's when dorner fired on that deputy. so you have this man who is at war with police in southern california. has now killed two police

officers. wounded three others. one of three is in critical condition. standoff is underway. we have very little information coming out of the actual cabin >> bret: we will follow this at #:00 on the fox report. looking at the live picture, they are checking the cars ands coming out to make sure he has not gotten out of that cabin. in to somebody else's vehicle coming out of the big bear area in the 7 oaks area off of highway 38. we will stay on this story. trace gallagher in the l.a. newsroom. we are following a lot of news. "state of the union" address tonight and foreign policy will not be the focus of the "state of the union" address, probably, but it will come up. tonight the president is dealing with the first major foreign policy crisis of the second term. north korea has conducted a third nuclear test. with the apparent goal of obtaining a warhead that could threaten the u.s.

chief washington correspondent james rosen at the state department on today's test. >> the test was conducted in a safe and perfect way, on a high level with the use of a smaller and light a-bomb, unlike priest ones, yet with great explosion i power. all that and the alarming claim of min neurodevice that couldn't confirmed appeared to be true. in an emergency morning session, the-up security council went through what the u.n. ambassador susan rice called the usual drill. >> we and others have a number of further measures we will be discussing with the council members in various spheres that will not only tighten the existing measures but we aim to augment the sanctions regime that is quite strong, as implemented in 1874 and 2087. >> those were the numbers

attach to prior security counsel resolutions that failed to halt north carolina's nuclear march. -- north korea's nuclear march. in washington, president called ambassador back. john kerry called counterparts in seoul, tokyo and beijing. >> for the past year, all of us have been sending signals, including china, to the new leadership in the dp, leadership is more than a year old. there is another set of choices that could be made. >> the democratic people's republican of korean, stallennist dictatorship continues to starve its people to feed its nuclear program. the u.s. geological survey recorded a seismic event roughly twice the magnitude of the north's second nuclear test in 2009. >> my sources in south carolinsouth koreatell me the ds different. instead of this being experiment like in the past this appears to be the north koreans perfected an operationm nuclear weapon. >> it's exploded a powerful

device, perhaps a miniature one. it has successfully tested three-stage long range missile, clearly in five years or maybe even three the north koreans will be able to threaten any american city. that is ominous. >> a key question still unanswered is whether the north nuclear test powered by reprocessed plutonium. with the first two tests or whether it represents a stunning advance with the enriched uranium. program that wasn't disclosed until 2010. >> bret: james rosen live at the state department. thank you. as we continue to look live on the side of the screen as the police standoff continues in big bear, california, we want to bring in our panel. on the "state of the union." a lot of big stories happening here. bill kristol, editor of the "weekly standard." mara liasson, political correspondent of national public radio and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. charles, we are juggling a lot of balls on the show. "state of the union." tonight, what do you think the president will say?

what does he need to say? what do you think will happen? >> it was interesting. when you talked to jay carney, he pulled back on the idea that it will be very aggressionive. remember, a day or two ago the word from the white house is it would be aggressive. everybody jumped on this because he has inaugural address which was aggressive. there will be a nuclear war on "state of the union" address. he pulled back and said we'll be reasonable and he went back to the speech obama gave in 2004. which was the great all come together, blue states, red state, we're the united states. the man who will heal our country. that was a shift from aggressive to healing and reaching across the aisle. i suspect it will be aggressive. >> bret: mara, you look at some of the excerpts they put out. they put out excerpts every year. it is our unfinished task to make sure the government works on behalf of the many. these are kind of phrases that we have heard on the campaign.

working for the middle class. that said, you know, one has to wonder about deficit and debt. how much the president is going to focus on that. to hear the house speaker say he doesn't think the president has the guts to do that, to challenge his own party on that, that was something. >> this is a very confident president. he is re-elect and feels the opponents are divided and the country is behind him. the question tonight is how much does he feel he has to compromise to get a deal? how much does he want a deal? how much does he think his legacy runs through a grand bargain with the republicans? i mean i would argue what he wants to make real investments in infrastructure and education and clean energy and manufacturing, which is he going to call for tonight, but if he wants to make them substantial he has to get the fiscal problem solved to free up revenue to do that and get some growth. we will find out a lot tonight. does he still want to demand concessions from the republicans? because he thinks he can do it again the way he did it in the

debt ceiling deal? or does he think he has to ask his party to move, too? >> bret: bill, also in the excerpts he says tonight i'll lay out the additional proposals that are fully paid for. fully consistent with the budget framework. both parties agree to just 18 months ago. he says let me repeat. nothing i'm proposing tonight should increase the deficit by a single dime. there will be a lot of people who question the math, obviously, in all of that. >> there will be. but this president is extremely confident. he wants to steamroll the republicans. that is very clear on both domestic policy and foreign policy and defense policy. he agreed on nuclear weapons. he sold his starting agreement with russia saying don't worry, this is sort of the last cuts that will be negotiated and modernize the force. article in the front page yesterday no,, more cuts to nuclear weapons coming. hagel nomination along those lines. this is a president who thinks the republican party is weak and divided and unwilling to fight. a big question for me will be

what will the republican response, the tactical issues where they can zig and zag, but in principle are they willing to stand up and fight the president or not? i think the hague hagel nomination, which we were just talking about, the vote on clo sure thursday, the first vote after the president's "state of the union" speech ironically will be a key test. will 45 republicans, or 41 republicans hold together to say look, hagel may get through eventually but he is not providing the information he promised he would provide. there are speech texts we now discovered he didn't provide and other information outstanding. can you at least give us more than one day to consider this? >> bret: on the republican response, marco rubio is delivering that response. it's simultaneously translated in spanish. they are touting that. but then there is a tea party response by senator rand paul. since when did marco rubio, was he not tea party enough? isn't that interesting dynamic the republican party? >> think less about tea party and regular republican party and two people mo are possible

2016 candidates. marco rubio got publicity and a strong spokesman. we will see it tonight, eloquent spokesman for the conservative principles and the republican party. rand paul decided i will give my speech, too. >> tea party has had their own response. third year in the row. michele bachmann and herman cain. this is a preview of the first skirmish of the 2016 republican primary. >> bret: last word, charles. >> warning by the tea party factions they can always split if they want to in the future. i think the success of republicans have been holding the coalition together. a warning. not sure that anything with eventuate but a warning. >> bret: we have complete coverage of everything. thanks, panel. interesting show filled with breaking news from california. as you look live there. all the preparations here in washington for the "state of the union" address. we will have that address tonight, of course, and the republican response beginning at 8:55 eastern. right here on fox news channel. thank you for iitg